The Georgetown Parliamentary Debate Team is an association of people with a common interest in competitive debate with other universities. The purpose of the Team is to provide an opportunity for its members to learn debating styles and rules, to develop and to practice their skills and techniques with other members of the Team, and compete within the debate league(s) it chooses to participate in. Currently, the Society is a member of, but will not be limited to, the American Parliamentary Debate Association (APDA). The Team shall host one tournament each year, preferably in March.
BOARD POSITIONS The Executive Board Shall: Retain the power to create and dissolve committees. Retain the power to enforce the judging requirement. Promulgate rules proper to the administration of the team. Provide meeting minutes and transparency on decision-making at the request of non-board team members. Attend semi-weekly team meetings and any Executive Board meetings to the best of their ability. Be available to members during the week. Train their successors during the end of the spring semester to ensure the smooth transfer of power.
Work to appoint and collaborate with a Tab Observer as instructed by APDA. Utilize a decision-making mechanism of a majority vote, with the President breaking ties, and pluralities permitted if there is an ex-post-facto justifiable reason for time constraint, and at least 5 minutes permitted for votes within the main communication medium of the board. The President shall: Plan, preside over, and facilitate Executive Board meetings. Supervise or delegate the organization of team activities. Serve as a liaison to APDA and any other debate organization in which the team may be a member.
Appoint members of the Team to positions necessary for running the annual APDA-sanctioned Georgetown Debate Tournament. These may include, but are not limited to: Tournament Director, Tab Director, Judging Director, Social Director, Housing Director, and Equity Officer. Ensure that the directing staff of said tournament fulfills their responsibilities to full extent such an undertaking requires. Select a Vice Presidential role to also perform immediately following Presidential elections, and prior to Vice-Presidential elections.
Be replaced by the senior-ranking Vice-Presidential member in the case that the President is indisposed or unable to perform their duties. Seniority will be determined first by years of membership on the Georgetown Parliamentary Debate Team, second by attended tournaments, and third by age. Oversee the Special Election of any vacancies that must be filled either as a result of an executive board member’s inability to perform their duties, or as a result of the President’s recent accession to Presidency. The Vice President of University Relations shall:
Serve as a liaison to the Student Activities Commission (SAC), to the team’s advisor in the Center for Student Engagement (CSE), and, if applicable, to the team’s faculty advisor. Promote, defend and enforce the purpose, constitution and best interests of the Society. Attend personally, appoint a substitute to attend, or proxy votes for all meetings in which the APDA body shall be determining tournament dates or electing national officers. Oversee the Vice Presidents. Serve as liaison to alumni of the team and manage the listserv of alumni.
Serve as liaison to other Georgetown University clubs and organizations. Attend allocation board meetings with the Vice President of Finance when additional funding is needed. Work with the Vice President of Finance to draft the team budget each semester. Maintain an independent budget record to be verified periodically with the Vice President of Finance. Fill in all SAC and CSE paperwork or approve any of said paperwork filled out by another Executive Board member, and ensure it is processed properly and timely. Send official team emails and approve all emails sent by other Executive Board members.
Book all required space for practices in locations and times and dates conducive to the Vice President of Intramural Operations. The Vice President of External Operations shall: Be the primary contact for correspondence with other universities and colleges Complete pre-registration for the Team at tournaments in a timely fashion. Assist the Vice President of Finance in acquiring financial information from tournaments. Maintain team’s Hoyalink page and all social media pages, including, but not limited to, Facebook page, Facebook group, and Twitter. Create Google forms to facilitate signing up for tournaments.
Establish an official list of individuals who wish to attend a tournament through a Google form or other similarly equitable manner. Use the official list of attendees to, after taking into account pairing requests and the opinions of fellow board members, create a list of pairing for each tournament. This list shall be submitted to the Executive Board for approval. Set and enforce all deadlines for signing up to attend tournaments. Negotiate with other teams on registration breaks, transportation sharing, and hybrids, in coordination with the President’s recommendations
The Vice President of Finance shall: Serve as the financial liaison to the Student Activities Commission. Keep strict and accurate records of the Team’s finances. Maintain accurate records of all allocated funds. Maintain accurate records of fundraising funds, deposits, withdrawals, and balances. Maintain receipts (originals or copies) from all purchases and reimbursements. If no receipt is available, then proof of purchase must be presented before reimbursing with Team funds. Organize fundraising activities if the team hosts any. Be required to attend any mandatory finance meetings.
Account for team property. Arrange transportation to and from tournaments in accordance with the allocated budget. Oversee the registration of drivers with the University necessary for transportation, in coordination with the Vice President of External Affairs. The Vice President of Internal Operations shall: Oversee committee operations. Facilitate practices and determine the agenda for each one. Communicate to the team on practice-related information. Record attendance at team practices and Executive Board meetings. Manage the team casebook and important Board Documents.
Be responsible for skill development. Oversee membership requests to the Hoyalink page. Maintain an official list of “Active” and “inactive” team members. The Member at Large shall: Serve as a guiding member of the board, functioning effectively as a tiebreaker and deliberator. Miscellaneous All decisions lacking special procedures as outlined in this Constitution shall be decided by a standard vote of the Executive Board. All Executive Officers shall be permitted to temporarily delegate power to other Executive Officers, provided both Officers agree to the delegation.
Executive Officers shall not temporarily delegate power to Non-Executive Officers or members without the approval of four-fifths of the Executive Board. No Executive Officer’s power shall be delegated permanently. Non-Executive Officers The Executive Board shall be free to create, fill with appointments, and dissolve non-executive officers they deem necessary to the functioning of the club, provided there are no more than five non-executive offices in existence at one time. NATURE OF TEAM ACTIVITIES Novice and varsity members shall practice debating and judging via practice rounds to be organized by the Vice President of Internal Affairs.
Decisions shall be made regarding which tournaments to attend and which members may attend them, given: The financial constraints of the Society. The availability of transportation. The skill and general attitude of each debater, as well as any disorderly or inappropriate conduct committed by each debater. Each debater’s practice attendance and their timely communication with Executive Board regarding tournaments. Social activities outside of debate shall be planned. All formal complaints shall be handled, discussed, and resolved.
The Team shall not officially endorse any candidate for an outside elected office for any organization which is an arm of Georgetown University. MEMBERS A member’s status shall be determined by his or her activity in the current semester and the previous semester. Active members shall meet the following requirements: Attend at least one APDA-sanctioned tournament each semester. Members who do not meet the requirements for active membership shall be deemed “inactive”, and shall be ineligible to vote and to attend APDA Nationals or any other title tournaments in which the team participates.
Exceptions shall be made for members who are off campus but still enrolled as undergraduate students at Georgetown University at the discretion of the Executive Board. When attending tournaments at other schools, members shall respect the rules of the host school. Case ownership Members will be required to upload cases which have been run at tournaments funded by the Team to the casebook Members will retain property claim over cases, and those cases will not be run by any other member without explicit permission from the owner prior to each round
At graduation, members will cede ownership of cases to the common property of the team The only exception will be when ownership is ceded to a particular team member, or when an original author has not yet graduated, in the case of co-authored cases Ownership may only be ceded to a particular team member by an original author of the case The executive board may deem certain team cases to be withheld from use until certain rounds (e. g. bubble rounds, round 4 or later, semifinals or later) by a majority vote
